Court Revisits a Killing in Greenwich

By

Joseph De Avila

April 22, 2013 9:24 p.m. ET

VERNON, Conn.—Dorthy Moxley, 80 years old, sat taking notes in the third row of a courtroom here, as lawyers for the man convicted of killing her teenage daughter 38 years ago made their case to set him free.

Michael Skakel was found guilty almost 11 years ago in the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley, who was discovered beaten to death in her family's Greenwich backyard with a golf club that belonged to the Skakel family.

ENLARGE

Michael Skakel in state Superior Court in Vernon, Conn., on Monday.
Associated Press

The case, which went unsolved for a quarter century, drew notoriety because it happened in Greenwich, an upscale enclave not typically associated with murder, and because Mr. Skakel is the nephew of Ethel Skakel Kennedy and the late Robert F. Kennedy.

Mr. Skakel, 52, who is serving a sentence of 20 years to life, seeks release from prison based on the theory that his 2002 defense was inadequate. The trial, which opened last week, is expected to continue at least through Friday. Ms. Moxley is in attendance every day.

"It isn't pleasant at all. It's something I wish we didn't have to do," Ms. Moxley said. "As long as the state of Connecticut is willing to keep him in jail, I'm willing to keep supporting them."

Mr. Skakel bears the same husky build and pink face that appeared in newspaper photographs more than a decade ago. Wearing a black sports coat and white dress shirt, he scribbled notes as witnesses testified. He occasionally whispered to his lawyers.

The hearing is unfolding in Rockville state Superior Court in Vernon, about 100 miles northeast from Greenwich, where few residents stopped along Greenwich Avenue felt comfortable talking about it.

Many declined interviews, citing the social influence the Kennedy name still holds in the region.

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Martha Moxley, in undated photo
Associated Press

"The story is legendary here," said Maggie Lange, a 33-year-old stay-at-home mother who lives in Greenwich. "The name is just something you know."

But the scandal is no longer part of the town's daily conversations. "That was a long time ago," said Joel Epstein, 65, who lives in Greenwich and is retired. "It's not something this town has talked about for years."

For years, however, a lot of people talked about the Moxley murder, and wrote about it. At least two books have been written about the case—one by former Newsday columnist Leonard Levitt, who had tracked the case for years, and one by Mark Fuhrman, a high-profile former Los Angeles Police Department detective who testified during the O.J. Simpson trial. Author Dominick Dunne wrote a novel inspired by the events.

The new hearing, however, has been much more low-key. The Hartford Courant, the Associated Press and Hearst Corp. have assigned reporters to cover it, but gone are the packs of television and newspaper reporters who followed the original trial.

That suits John Moxley, the 54-year-old brother of Martha.

"I'm just grateful there are no TV cameras here. It's difficult," said Mr. Moxley who now lives in Short Hills, N.J. He said the family still fielded frequent requests for television interviews, which they decline. "It's too hard. It's too demanding. It brings up too much."

Mr. Moxley almost didn't come to the court proceedings, but he said he felt he needed to be there to support his mother. "I decided I was not going to surrender another day of my life to Michael Skakel. Michael has already taken enough," he said.

He said it was hard for him to stay away from following the trial. "It's kind of like the moth and the flame: You get too close, and it'll kill you," Mr. Moxley said.

John Skakel, a brother of Mr. Skakel, also was in court Friday but declined to comment and said the family wouldn't be making public statements until the proceeding was finished.

Mr. Skakel was last in the news in October, when he was denied a plea for parole, his first. Now his attorneys have filed a petition arguing that Mr. Skakel's former lawyer, star defense attorney Michael "Mickey" Sherman, failed to provide adequate legal representation during the 2002 trial.

On Friday, Mr. Skakel's current lawyers questioned Marjorie Walker Hauer, who grew up in the Belle Haven neighborhood of Greenwich where the Skakel and Moxley families lived during the 1970s.

During her testimony, she said she told Mr. Sherman in 2002 about Gitano "Tony" Bryant. Mr. Bryant was a close friend of Ms. Walker Hauer's brother, and he told her that two of his friends killed Ms. Moxley, Ms. Walker Hauer said.

Mr. Sherman had said Mr. Bryant's account was "highly unlikely," Ms. Walker Hauer recalled. "I felt that they really weren't that interested finding out more about it or investigating," she said.

Mr. Skakel's attorneys have raised the issue of Mr. Bryant's account in past pleas for a new trial. A judge in 2007 found those claims unbelievable.

For the Moxley family, the court proceedings were a rehash of old and hurtful information, Mr. Moxley said. "This is I think the 10th court proceeding that we've been through. And each time it's going over the same thing over and over again."

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